Blunt, Chamber of Commerce push for St. Louis China hub (AUDIO)

Senator Blunt says after the flooding subsides, one of his main focuses will be on building Missouri’s economy.

Making St. Louis a hub for imports from China has been debated at length in the legislature, but has yet to happen. Senator Blunt and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce say taking advantage of that opportunity is going to give Missouri’s economy a huge boost. He says he talked in St. Louis with some people from China about making the hub happen.

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce says they would like to see a decision made on it in a special session of the legislature this summer, if one happens. President Dan Mehan says this opportunity is too important to pass up. Mehan says the conditions are perfect for St. Louis to be the hub: It’s central in the Mid-West, the airport has the capacity and Missouri agriculture has a large export volume.

Mehan says it’s dissapointing that it didn’t pass through the legislature this year. He says the main reason it didn’t pass was political fighting and not opposition to the issue.

Blunt says the United States workforce is one tenth of the Chinese workforce, but our international exports are about the same. He says that another way to boost the economy is opening fair trade agreements with other countries like Panama, Columbia and Korea.